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IBM makes some very cool storage announcements

IBM has today announced a whole swag of planned new features across the entire IBM Storage product line. You can read the announcement letter here and I have also dropped the text at the bottom of this blog post (to save you clicking on the link).

It's a very impressive list, but to hone in on a few of the more exciting offerings:

IBM Easy Tier will be enhanced to cache hot data in SSD storage installed in a client server. Looks like it will initially be a combination of DS8700/DS8800 and AIX with or Linux servers. I am sure there are plenty who will immediately think of EMC VFCache, so I am keen to get more details so I can see how the two compare. If you are curious in the meantime, check out this EMC fact sheet and then read this fascinating interview with the CMO of FusionIO.

A new high density storage module will be made available, initially I suspect for the DS8800. This is a really important step as we are seeing a lot of new technologies emerging in the SSD space. This is because the technical requirements of SSD don't always line up with the architectures of existing storage controllers, so a custom built enclosure designed just for SSD makes perfect sense.

The IBM XIV will be enhanced with the ability to cluster multiple XIVs together and migrate volumes non-disruptively between them. The non-disruptive volume migration is a great new feature which should definitely help with swapping XIVs out as new models come available.

There are plenty of other new features as well, so check out the announcement letter reproduced below:

IBM® intends to support a number of new enhancements to a variety of IBM storage systems in the future. These enhancements will leverage innovative research on intelligent algorithms, automation, and virtualization that is being incorporated into products in the IBM storage portfolio. The statements of direction highlighted here are intended to provide a glimpse into the IBM storage roadmap for selected product capabilities.

IBM intends to deliver:

Advanced Easy Tier™ capabilities on selected IBM storage systems, including the IBM System Storage® DS8000® , designed to leverage direct-attached solid-state storage on selected AIX® and Linux™ servers. Easy Tier will manage the solid-state storage as a large and low latency cache for the "hottest" data, while preserving advanced disk system functions, such as RAID protection and remote mirroring.

An application-aware storage application programming interface (API) to help deploy storage more efficiently by enabling applications and middleware to direct more optimal placement of data by communicating important information about current workload activity and application performance requirements.

A new high-density flash storage module for selected IBM disk systems, including the IBM System Storage DS8000 . The new module will accelerate performance to another level with cost-effective, high-density solid-state drives (SSDs).

IBM intends to extend IBM Active Cloud Engine™ capabilities to:

Allow files on selected NAS devices to be virtualized by SONAS and Storwize® V7000 Unified. Virtualization capabilities provide access across a unified global namespace, while facilitating transparent file migrations in parallel with normal operations. This capability will help provide customer investment protection as clients continue to leverage their existing NAS assets while exploiting the capabilities of IBM Active Cloud Engine .

Enable file collaboration globally via IBM Active Cloud Engine . This capability will help enhance productivity where users at geographically dispersed locations can both share and modify the same file.

IBM intends to deliver Cloud features to SONAS and Storwize V7000 Unified to support:

Self-service portal designed to speed storage provisioning, monitoring, and reporting.

IBM intends to support an increased scalability of capacity, performance, and host bandwidth by clustering IBM XIV® Gen3 systems together and providing the capability to migrate volumes across the cluster without disrupting applications. Management of the cluster will remain simple with consolidated views and shared configurations across the systems. These capabilities are intended to help clients address the scalability and management requirements for effective cloud computing.

IBM intends to extend NAS data retention enhancements for IBM Storwize V7000 Unified and IBM SONAS to provide file "immutability" to help support file integrity from the time the file is designated as immutable through its lifecycle. Immutability is intended to secure files from inadvertent or malicious change or deletion.

IBM intends to enable Real-time Compression for block and file workloads on Storwize V7000 Unified systems. This enhancement is designed to help clients experience the same high-performance compression for active primary block and file workloads on Storwize V7000 Unified that is being announced for block workloads on Storwize V7000. IBM Storwize V7000 Real-time Compression is designed to deliver enhanced storage efficiency with potential benefits including lower storage acquisition cost (because of the ability to purchase less hardware), reduced storage growth, and lower rack space, power, and cooling requirements.

All statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. The information in the above paragraphs are intended to outline our general product direction and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. This information is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.

Quarantine this entry

The New DS3500 firmware with VAAI, ALUA, Diskpools etc has been
released. <div>&nbsp;</div>
Now, is something needed to enable VAAI ? <br />
What I mean is, in vSphere 4.1 You need device specific VAAI
drivers (like the 1.2.0.1 for XIV, SVC, V7000 etc). <br />
I can see no such drivers for the DS3500 together with the latest
firmware downloads (and not on VMwares site etiher). <br />
Is this supported on vSphere 5 ?